


Through the Dark

by spotofpurple



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Angst, Battle, Castles, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forests, M/M, Magic-Users, Manipulation, Other, Powerful Harry, Rebellion, Rich Louis, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 07:32:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6557440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotofpurple/pseuds/spotofpurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the forest, where he was sent to seduce and manipulate a powerful rebel leader, Louis finds the light which will lead him through the dark. </p>
<p>Or: A 1D AU where there is magic, powers, politics, war and romance. And a happy ending :-D</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galacticlourry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticlourry/gifts).



There is a vase of spring flowers on Father’s desk when Louis gets invited into the study. It is noon, a bright and clear spring day, a view to the nearby forest from the study in the side tower of the Tomlinson castle. Louis is nervous and excited to get a task.

 “Louis.”, his Father says, like he always does, expectant and cold, disinterested in Louis generally. He is a bastard, a child of a rich Lord and heir, born out of wedlock. If life played out by the usual rules, Louis would be cast away along with his mother two decades ago, as soon as he was born. _But._ A child born out of wedlock is still an important child if it is the only male one the Lord has. And thus, the life on the borders of normal, a lonely cottage on the edge of Father’s estate, double lengths to run in order to meet the standards of “average”, it was served like a prize, a sentence in disguise.

“Father.”, Louis answers, back straight and head held up. He is the son of this man. A brilliant, cunning diplomat that has held on to an empire of gold in the age of war just by using his brain. Louis respects him, and there is nothing he wants more in life than to get that respect returned.

“I have a task you can accomplish.”

And Louis is already planning which schemes to use to get his way and how to prove himself. He wants this, so bad he can taste it, the recognition and maybe, at the end of a road, for the man who made him to touch him for the first time in his life.

“You are aware of the visit Lord Farrow made to the estate yesterday?”

Louis nods.

“There are some rebels creating trouble in the Lord’s estate, an ugly, low-life upheaval against an honest and fair ruler. Thus, I have been left in charge of providing some… help from the outside. Lord Farrow needs information on everything.”, Father looks at him like he expects Louis not to pick up on the gentle layers between his lines.

“Everything?”, Louis raises an eyebrow, face expressionless.

“The usual. Weapons, numbers, hierarchy. And, most of all, abilities.”

And there it is. Louis’ stomach drops and twists around nothing.

They are _The Others_. Of course they are.

Lord Farrow might be a very rich and powerful man, but honest or fair he isn’t. His stand on the common, “tainted” folk, as the wealthy believe, is what really bothers Louis about him.

A few years before Louis was born, three ships with refugees sailed down the river Nives, which runs through the middle of the joint estates owned by twelve ancient families in the valley. And on the ships, there were broken, wounded men and scared, hollow-eyed women and starving children, so nobody could be so monstrous to send them away when they sought shelter. Not in the houses or the stables, but rather in the woods.

_The Others._ They all called them like that, but generally let them go about their ways. And then it started happening. It wasn’t like The Others were keeping it a secret at all. Their children were not born like other children. Wild, unruly, fed on their freedom more than on their mother’s milk, the children ran wherever they wanted and sometimes, once in a few dozen, they were born with abilities. The first one Louis ever saw could go through walls like they weren’t in front of her, like it was pure air and not wood or brick that kept their house together. His father was one of the people who didn’t look too kindly on seeing the “common folk” do something that he couldn’t. So him and Lord Farrow and some of the others formed an alliance and made it their mission to make The Others living in their estates or cities invisible. Unheard. Unseen.  A rumor.

But, as with all wild things, you can’t really trap them.

Upheavals and rebellions were a pretty common thing, so Louis was right to ask himself why did this one require his assistance and not a simple raid with armed, trained soldiers.

“They have a leader that supposedly has… precious gifts. Information about his abilities are the most important part of your task Louis. I expect you back here, just as you are now, and I want you to tell me what can the boy do and what kind of army is he building in that rat hole they call a camp. Understand?”

There was a bit of malice in Father’s eyes, nothing too obvious, but a usual, normal amount.

Challenging it with pure intellectual curiosity, Louis asked: “Why me?”

“Ahh, you see. The infiltration method is vital. The boy is gentle with castaways. People who lose their home. And especially relevant for you, he shares your… sexual habits.”

In the complete silence of the study, Louis’ eyes finally escaped Father’s to focus on the flowers. Of course. Being caught with an angel-faced stable boy once brought his value down, depressingly so, because a sole male heir that prefers to lay with men is perhaps not so uncommon, but a bastard that chooses to do so and refuses to change, well… It made Louis into even more of an uncomfortable presence in Father’s house, a constant reminder of a failing, unyielding obstacle. Louis wouldn’t lay with women, didn’t even sleep with a man, unbeknownst to Father, but would do just fine risking his neck in the forest, for the sake of being accepted as he is in the only place where he could belong.

Trying not to demonstrate that he cares in any way, Louis met his Father’s eyes again and nodded before leaving the study.

Being gay was the least of his worries out there in the forest. Not being one of The Others was a secondary fear compared to the true horror – being one of them. Because beyond the soiled bed sheets that his Father didn’t approve of, there was another, more terrible secret, one that Louis discovered at the gentle age of 10.

Sometimes, when really comfortable and relaxed, mostly while sitting on the top branches of his favorite tree in Father’s orchard, Louis could imagine the world being his. He could almost feel it on the tip of his fingers. And often, with that feeling also came the spark of fire from his hand. A true, touchable, burning thing, that a bastard of an heir shouldn’t be able to do. Unless he wasn’t really just a bastard at all.

***

Harry knew who he was from the beginning. It wasn’t very well hidden, neither the boy’s identity nor his wandering eyes.

In the wide meadow on the western edge of the forest, Louis stood like a humble abandoned orphan, a poor unfortunate soul that got cast out. He wouldn’t say why.

And it was perhaps best that he didn’t try to lie about that, because Harry probably wouldn’t be able to keep quiet and pretend to swallow it. Louis wasn’t a bad actor, on the contrary. But Niall has been tracking Lord Farrow and the Tomlinson Asshole for long enough to know how his bastard looks like. The advantage of having a wingman who can read people’s mind like a moving picture was that not that many things stay hidden.

But it was the way Louis looked at him that really made Harry’s blood boil. An angelic, inquisitive face schooled into innocent features, with a burning of something else beneath – it wasn’t hard to guess that Louis was sent here to seduce him. And, if Harry can brag a bit, he was failing pretty much. It didn't even need to be honest, Louis looked beautiful even in the rags they found him in, had this bright, cheerful presence around him, a figure hidden with too little clothes  that made Harry’s mouth water, a glint in the eye that spoke of adventures and well… Harry fell less and faster for men who were much less attractive, even though everyone he ever laid eyes on was _less_ in comparison with Louis. But it was the way he tried too hard to flirt and tame that put Harry off. If he wasn’t such an obvious and poorly wooed target, he would fall like nothing else.

However, Zayn had an idea come to him and that is how he got himself into trying to seduce their little imposter first.

“We need a stronghold. Not a home in the forest Harry, we need a proper castle if we are to wage this war. Because it will be a war, without a doubt.”

Harry was well aware of it, but hated the idea of leaving the green dream he has been living in his entire life. The world outside didn’t have appeal, but it did have threats, plenty of them. And Harry was a leader, responsible to fight this out for his people, so having an ally that would bring his Father’s castle into the equation, someone who grew up in it and knew all the secrets that needed to be known, was a smart ally to have. And since Louis was already playing the seduction game – playing it back was the simplest thing to apply.

“Don’t you dare fall for him.”, Zayn warned him before leaving Harry’s tent and well… His second-in-command wasn’t telepathic for nothing. There was something beneath this cunning playing, deep below, barely tangible, that drew him to Louis.

That is how, two days after they found Louis Harry approached the boy and asked to talk alone. Louis batted his eyelashes in a poor attempt at being sexy and well… Harry had to bite his lip in annoyance – he was way sexier before the ridiculous effort.

“I am to teach you about your new home Louis. Will you come with me to explore?”, he asked, his best, deep voice and piercing look making the boy swoon. It was ridiculous how inexperienced this little vixen really was.

“Alone?”, Louis asked, drawing the word out on purpose. It annoyed Harry instantly, but instead of showing it, he smirked and let his eyes trail down Louis’ body, this time dressed up in deep, forest green of their own clothes. It suited him.

“I will keep you safe, don’t worry.”, he said over his shoulder and walked away, trusting Louis will follow. He did.

They were walking silently side-by-side for a few minutes, getting away from the camp. Louis was looking at the ground, deep in thought, biting his lip. He was honestly confused by Harry’s behavior, bless him.

They were walking for a while, Harry pointing this way and that, with a bit of information and a lot of flirting, making Louis blush on every step of the way. It was somehow a game to Harry, to see how much of the real person he can get out from underneath. He even made him laugh a few times, a surprised chirp of delight falling magically from Louis’ lips and, somehow, it was the best thing Harry has heard or seen around Louis until now.

Deeper into the forest, there were higher trees and more of the delicious green darkness, a true home. With smaller spaces in between, they had to walk closer together, occasionally touching hands. Louis flinched the first time, since he was too engrossed into Harry’s tale of the archers hunting deer at the little pond not far away, as if he forgot  why he was truly there in the forest with the leader of the rebellion. Harry could see he exact moment when it downed on him, just as they were coming up to the hidden little cliff above one of the highest waterfalls of Nives.

“Harry? Can I ask you something?”, he whispered and Harry stopped to look at him.

“Of course.”, he said, hoping for something true.

“I’ve seen a lot of…. of what the others can do. How Liam can lift things with his mind, or how Perrie can fly, even saw Niall reading thoughts… But, I was wondering…”, he sounded brokenly honest in asking, and it would pass, if only Harry didn’t already know.

He was sent to find out about Harry’s powers, faking mild interest, like many others before him. And it was one thing that Harry would never, ever say to anyone, besides the people who already saw him doing it. It was his ability that got him and his mother cast out of a tiny cottage owned by Lord Farrow, because he found Harry too dangerous. And now, his renewed interest could only mean one thing. He needed to confirm that the leader of the forest rebels was indeed the tiny, scared boy hugging his mother around the legs when she got slapped and hit. Because of what Harry could do.

There were many reasons why Harry was about to go to war, but that moment twenty years ago was the reason behind all others, why he got up in the morning and grabbed a sword to practice with. Damned he would be if a little spy outsmarted him.

“You want to know what I can do.”, he said, interrupting Louis, maybe a bit too harsh , judging by the way he flinched.

“I… I just want to get to know you.”, he tried with the flirting again and it made Harry sick to watch it.

He stepped into Louis’ space, looking down into bright blue eyes, such pretty eyes tainted with such an ugly intent. And he smiled, like he would looking into the eyes of the devil that struck his mother all those years ago.

“But isn’t it best to keep a bit of mystery between us?”, he whispered and Louis’ eyes widened in arousal and a bit of fear. He didn’t like the fear. But then again, he also didn’t like to be deceived.

Louis wasn’t breathing properly when Harry bent down slightly, to graze over his cheek with a whisper.

“How much do you actually want to get to know me love?”

Louis frowned a bit and shook his head, like he is trying to chase something out of it.

“A lot.”, he said back and it dripped with the truth. It was really, honestly there and Louis wasn’t pretending saying it.

Harry smiled, getting the nasty little smirk that he had permanently attached to his face off and grabbed the smaller boy around the waist.

“I hope you know how to swim.”, he shouted, before tipping them both off the cliff and down the misty air of the waterfall.

***

Louis screamed all the way to the water, then screamed a bit at Harry when they dragged themselves out to the muddy stones beneath the waterfall. Harry laughed, free and happy as he always felt and, dragging his eyes down Louis’ wet body, he couldn’t help but imagine how would it feel if he kissed the complaining off of his lips.

_If he did it then, in the water, would Louis kiss back honestly? Would he stop pretending and allow Harry to stop pretending too? Would he allow himself to slip the mask off until the carefree, beautiful young man remained?_

He didn’t. They looked at each other the way people sometimes do, screaming silently that this is the moment and then… just let it go. Louis hoped it was because they pretty much figured each other out by now and it was more than obvious that the game was out. Louis stupidly (or rather egoistically) thought it was working, his flirting and silly seductions, but Harry could overpower him much faster than Louis succeeded with him and there could only be one reason why – Harry was playing his own game. And after he threw them both down a waterfall while avoiding the very question Louis was sent to ask, the game was open.

Half an hour later, they stumbled back into camp, wet and in heavy silence. There were no words, but the understanding was there. Open games could still be played.

***

Watching the kids of the camp chase each other around the fire that night, Louis couldn’t stop thinking how he maybe doesn’t want to play at all.

Father wanted information and thus Louis was here. But. There were people here, ordinary and special as anyone else and while Louis could manipulate nearly all of them, he couldn’t really manipulate himself into thinking it was right to do so. Maybe he went bad in that damn castle where he spent his entire life. He must have, as soon as he accepted an order to come here ruin lives and put monsters much closer to the forest heaven. Louis wasn’t a bad person, not by nature and not by choice.

Father wanted this and Louis wanted Father to finally love him, but did Father even know what love was, if he could play such games? And send Louis to play them for him, half-convinced his stupid son didn’t figure out that what he will actually be bringing back to the castle are war strategies.

He didn’t want to do it, but then again, did he have a choice? The castle was home and the forest wasn’t. He was an intruder, a bad actor whose play was uncovered and even if Harry didn’t alarm anyone else about what he knew, it was a matter of time he would be asked to leave.

“Or you could just stay and not be a pawn in any game, eh?”

Louis nearly screamed and punched Niall right into the smirk he was proudly wearing. He hated people sneaking up to him, but people sneaking up to him while reading his thoughts was proving to be additionally annoying.

“Life isn’t that easy.”, he said after calming down and exchanging a look with Niall that confirmed that denial was useless.

“I live in a forest, you live in a castle. You are haunted by your own demons, I have everyone's  on my back too. You sure you want to talk to me about unfair lives?”, Niall countered.

He was a joyful person, always smiling and seeping trustworthiness from his every pore, but yet. These angels of the forest hid their devils in very unusual ways.

“Is it not great, to be able to know what people think? Their true intentions? Deepest fears, desires?”, he asked, still amazed how comfortably they all lived with their abilities.

“I don’t need the ability to know what people think. Deepest fears are often very obvious, if you only look. Harry can do the same thing I can. Even you, having learned the cunning games of life from your father.”, Niall said, turning away from Louis to look into the fire.

“And yet, I came here thinking I could deceive all of you. Father won’t let this go, you have to know that.”, he warned.

“Of course I know that. But do you know that you could choose a family? Like you couldn’t choose your father?”

Niall didn’t look at him again, but Louis couldn’t stop looking at the way his blond hair glittered in the light of the fire. 

Maybe he could choose.

***

It was like having a flower open into an abyss of beauty, what Harry saw now. Louis was a butterfly of color in the green of the forest and maybe the deep calm was soothing, but the color made Harry’s blood boil and mind go blank.

This Louis, true Louis, the unmasked figure, he was so…pure. Giggles and light and a burst of life in a place which was already brimming with it, Louis mastered beauty of stillness and motion into a deadly combination of too much and not enough. Harry couldn’t stop looking, so he saw it all.

A curious little boy learning how to put up his own tent, a joyful prankster tipping Perrie into the water while she was washing clothes at the river, a strong presence teaching a young girl this special “Tomlinson archer style” trick with the bow that made the arrows fly right where she wanted them. A friendly presence that patted Liam on the back when Sophia passed up on his offer of sharing his tent again. A delight of happy thoughts that made Niall relax into a mellow smile of reading someone who was truly beautiful, inside and out.

Louis stopped seducing him and that is when the magic truly worked, because now Harry saw the natural man, messy hair in the mornings and how he stretched to reach for a bag with bread, the gentle sweep of eyelashes on his cheek and the stubble of reddish hair on the edges of his face, piercing blue eyes that soaked life up.

Zayn was properly worried for the levels of arousal beaming from Harry. He was a leader because he risked with caution. But he was true Harry only when he took a leap of faith.

***

Louis was learning how to hunt, avoiding the depressive thoughts of this dream of a life having to end eventually. The rabbit was elusive though, and he also doubted that he really could kill it, because it was too fast for a hand trained at small castle animals.

Breathing in, he poised the arrow one last time, one last guess and that would be it for today. And then a pair of hands touched the hollow of his sucked in stomach beneath the ribs and the arrow flew away into nothing. Harry didn’t let him turn around, kept him there with a firm grip. Louis shuddered.

“When you turn around, will let you let me kiss you?”, Harry asked and Louis nodded faster than he thought is humanly possible.

Slowly, he moved in Harry’s arms and then he was there. Looking up into the same green as the forest around them, a shallow breath held at bay while looking at Harry’s full, red lips. There is nothing, not even the world or this forest dream that Louis wanted more than to kiss those lips.

When Harry tilted his head up and kissed him, firm and gentle, perfect and all of it at the same time, Louis’ fingertips touched the entire world. Flinching away, Harry ripped his body away from him and screamed. Horrified, Louis looked down at the hand that was poised at Harry’s forearm and yes, it was aflame.

He ran fast, faster than he thought he could ever run. This shouldn’t have happened. Never.  Nobody should have ever known that he's not a normal man from beyond the forest, that there is something deep, below, true and there. And yet. The only person who knew, who just found out, was a leader of a rebellious tribe full of people that could maybe understand. But Louis himself didn’t think he was willing to understand.

Harry caught up with him half a mile later, legs more trained to run across the forest floor. He didn’t look like he is about to kill Louis, but he also didn’t want to stop and check. He did just pretty much attempt an assassination, even though he wasn’t even aware that he was burning Harry.

“Stop! Stop now!”, Harry screamed and lastly threw himself at Louis, tackling them both to the ground.

“Let me go! I didn’t mean it, I am sorry, just let me leave, I won’t…”, and the words died on Louis’ lips, because there was another pair on them. This time he didn’t set anything on fire, just stilled, confused about why is Harry kissing him after that.

“Louis. You are one of us.”, Harry breathed across his cheek and Louis flinched.

“No, I am not. I am from beyond the forest. This doesn’t matter, no one knows, not even Father, please, please, let me go, I have to go…”, there were tears he had to swallow but couldn’t and it was all too much.

“I am not letting you go now. Never. You belong to us, you are mine to protect.”, Harry was smiling like a deranged person, like all the pieces of the puzzle only he saw just came together.

“Harry.”, Louis said, teardrops still sticking to his eyelashes and he tried to wiggle one of his hands out from underneath Harry to wipe them off.

Harry did it for him, rough skin on his hands and look of absolute awe on his face.

“I nearly set you on fire the last time we tried that.”, Louis warned when Harry leaned in.

Harry chuckled and continued to kiss him.

***

And that is how it started to end. First, Louis was just happy. Harry knew how to touch away the sad and the doubt and bring more joy into his days, now spent sitting on tree branches and swimming in the Nives, Harry by his side and the world tilted the right way.

The tribe found it funny and amusing that their leader was a besotted puppy with heart eyes and laser focus on Louis. There was a war to be wom, but maybe he could live normal before, after, during?

They got drunk sitting around the fires in the evening, the sound of music and hearty jigs in the air, laughter surrounding stolen kisses and free touches. To be free, that is what Louis learned for the first time. How to breathe, in and out, completely free, conjure fire on the tips of his fingers and command it to do whatever he wanted, a gentle touch on his back and a soothing voice in his ear. These ways in which he was special didn’t make him different, it just made him _him_. And if there was a world he left behind, that didn’t accept him, this one he found in return liked him just fine.

It was the night before that last morning that Louis gave up the last thing he held back. Harry proved to be a lover from the stories, the gentle and firm presence that makes you enter a fog of pleasure and pure delight, a master of keeping panic at bay and a guiding hand into the last snippet of virginity Louis had attached to himself. Men have touched him before, but never like that and that is why he used to stop them, always, before. It didn’t feel right. With Harry, it was the whole new definition of right.

They fell asleep in Harry’s tent and that is from where Louis jumped out of in the morning.

There was something off about the forest, the fog and the smell was artificial, almost chemical. There were no birds chirping. Out in the open, Louis observed the camp waking up and settling into a silence of expectation.

And then it struck. Shouting came from the sides and then there were things exploding all over the place, smoke and screams heard and feet running away, somewhere to safety. Louis ran forward, somewhere, but Harry’s shout from behind stopped him. He was standing in front of the tent and it was there that Louis saw it. A black, metallic thing, lying on the ground in front of the tent, too close to Harry. He jumped at it and picked it up, mindlessly throwing it away from them. It exploded mid-flight.

Louis was thrown backwards, away, hit the ground and that was it.

***

There was a proper bed beneath him when he woke up. That was a week ago and every second since then was spent in agony. His head was wrapped up and hurt like hell, but the outcome itself was what made him scream in pain.

Father was there, back in the castle, where he belongs. Where he brought Louis to. After he blew up the rebel camp in an ingenious little cunning plan he coined a long time before Louis was even sent to the forest, planned to wipe out the entire tribe by surprise. Planned to kill Harry. Planned to be executed by Louis himself. Except Louis lost himself to being a fool in love and didn’t come back. So Father did it for him.

“You could have been an unfortunate casualty, but it turned out quite well for you.”, Father said and that was it.

The cold truth that he could have stopped it all, if only he played the game and _played Father_ made him angry and desperate to get up and avenge something. But the horrible reality that people died because he served as a distraction, that he is to blame, that made him stay chained to the bed by his own shackles.

Father claimed Harry was (sadly) alive, but was nowhere to be found.

For days, Louis despaired and cried and pitied himself, until he finally came to his senses. No point in doing nothing. Maybe, just maybe, he can still make some difference.

Seeing him up and properly moving didn’t impress Father, but then again, nothing really did.

“Oh, Louis. Come, let me show you the mechanism behind the bombs we used. I think it was quite clever of me, if I say so myself.”, he waved Louis in the study, the same _damn_ study room and Louis entered.

“How did you know when and how to attack? I never said anything to you.”, his tone and appearance were not calm and poised like he used to be in front of Father. Being free meant fighting your monsters too and you can’t do that sitting down like a good boy.

Father looked up, a bit of surprise evident on his features.

“Every family has traitors Louis. Even with The Others.”

It stung deeper than Louis thought It would, but he didn’t give Father the pleasure of seeing it.

“And who was your little traitor?”, he asked and Father chuckled.

“A girl. A common, stupid little thing, came to the castle herself. She had quite an interest in your young lover Louis. Then, when you did your job of… occupying him so successfully, she came up with a plan to have you removed. By notifying your very concerned parent, that is.”

The smile he had on his face was the one from nightmares, the monster one. And Louis followed it down the rabbit hole.

“Where is she now?”, he asked, voice trembling with the need to strike and kill her.

“Oh, disposed of, of course. It would be a reward to leave her for you, wouldn’t it? And we can’t have awards for disobedient children, can we?”

Ironically, that was the first and last time Louis’ father will ever call him a child, even his own child. Pain exploded behind his eyelids and he flinched away like Father struck him.

Just before he was about to shout, Father chuckled.

“Do you know he played you? Are you that stupid, you bastard, that you do not realize? Your precious little rebel, he only bedded you so you would help him take over my castle.”

There was malice dripping from that voice and Louis stood still.

“I know he had a plan, but he didn’t…”, he started justifying what he thought was necessary. Except it wasn’t. Why should he explain why he knew that Harry loved him, just as much as he loved Harry? How could someone so vile ever understand?

“He wouldn’t what fool?! He wouldn’t manipulate you into opening the castle gates just as fast as you opened your legs, you stupid whore?!”

In retrospect, Louis will never forget the first time he heard Father scream.

The siren of the castle guard came in through the window like a savior and Father ran out before he could even assess how much damage he made with Louis.

Shaken, Louis stumbled outside the study and right into the hallway, where the captain of the castle guard was screaming at Father that Lord Farrow’s castle fell  a day ago and they were just now under attack, that the rebels were coming and their leader is in front of the castle gates.

Louis nearly fainted with relief.

Out from the balcony, he could clearly see that something had the guards and the people below in panic, there were moving rocks and bricks flying through the air, hitting this way and that way, smoke was coming up from the gates and then, in the middle – Niall was running with archers surrounding him, obviously issuing commands of where to aim and wound. Liam and Perrie were engaging the main tower guards, her flying above and aiming with whatever Liam lifted up. Zayn was cutting through to them from the back gate with the sword fighters.   
Louis didn’t spot him at first, so focused on the people fighting on the ground level, the residents of the castle running in all directions to get away from the fight. But then he looked up and indeed, along the castle walls, leading right up to the side tower with the study in which Louis was, was Harry. With a simple leather armor,  a sword by his side and hair tied up, he looked like a dream running towards where Louis was standing. A stupid, idiotic dream, that was running at a very exposed point with no protection at all.

Louis jumped inside the room to the wall behind Father’s desk and grabbed his bow and arrow. He ran outside just in time to shoot down a guard that was approaching Harry from the right. Seeing a blur of a man getting struck by an arrow, Harry looked up and saw him. There was one split moment where they just looked, a bit of a moment barely allowed and then it was lost again.

On Harry’s left, a bit down the castle walls, a group of guards appeared, approaching fast. There were six of them and they seemed to be targeting just Harry, with the way they were running. Panicking, Louis noticed barrels in front of them, filled with the powder Father used for the bombs. Harry was far enough still, so in a moment of clarity, Louis didn’t really think about it. Aiming for the barrel, he reached down and brushed his fingertips over the tip of an arrow, setting it on fire. From the balcony, it flew perfectly to the powder and Harry was ducking behind the bend in the wall when it all went up in flames.

The explosion cleared a big part of the wall, big enough for everyone to notice and look up. Harry rose behind the wall unharmed, but on the other side of the wall gap stood Father. Louis didn’t see him before, but apparently he was the one giving instructions to the guards to attack Harry. He looked up at Louis.

“You have powers you filthy thing!”, he screamed and that was it. Chaos broke and the rest of the guards ran to help their Lord, but the rebels had them cornered after such a foolish mistake.

***

It was peaceful in the orchard, no people bustling around after majority or the castle residents ran away. The Others had much quieter feet touch the ground and they were mainly trickling back to the forest anyway. The war was over before it even began properly.

“You had the plans to raid the Farrow castle this entire time?”, Louis asked Harry when they reunited after the battle.

“He was the main target the entire time. I never would have went after your father’s castle, if he didn’t have you trapped here.”,  Harry confessed.

“So, you came to rescue me?”, Louis asked in his best flirty tone and Harry groaned.

“Oh, not this again! Of course I came for you, but you didn’t need that much rescuing, did you?”

It was true. After the rest of the guards gave up their weapons, Louis locked Father up in the dungeon himself and then escorted the rest of the people who wanted to leave by himself. Technically, the castle was his now. No matter, because Harry had one too and they both preferred the forest anyway.

Harry took his sweet time in touching him until making sure he was whole and well, the last thing he saw from Louis being him blown away by the bomb. Father’s men grabbed Louis before Harry could get to him after the explosion. The majority of the tribe was safe and moved into the forest, after Niall alarmed them there will be an attack. But Louis was gone and Harry was, in Zayn’s words “losing his shit”, so they went after the Farrow castle immediately. Apparently, Farrow had the detailed maps of the Tomlinson castle, planning a bit of an invasion himself, which were what they really needed to go get Louis.

“Which was all this loon was talking about really.”, claimed Niall, while clapping a blushing Harry on the back.

Now, Louis took him to show him the orchard, his tiny castle forest. Harry found it small but cute.

“You know, I never told you what is my ability.”, Harry suddenly said.

Louis moved from his lap to turn around and look at him.

“You didn’t. And you don’t have to. If you don’t want to, that is.”

“ I do. I want you to know. I just… I never showed anyone, it was always that someone stumbled onto me doing it.”, Harry said, avoiding looking at Louis in the eye.

“Doing what?” , Louis was curious now.

Gently, Harry slipped to the ground and approached something in the ground. Louis followed looking down in interest.

Beneath Harry’s feet there was a tiny wounded shrub of an apple plant, harmed by the explosions in the battle. Harry sat in front of it and gently put his hands around. And just so, magically, the plant started lifting its broken, stomped on branches from the ground and up, towards the sky. A light shone from Harry’s skin and his eyes were liquid with greenish hues of gold.

Louis looked in awe as the tree grew, inch by tiny inch, leaves and branches and the crackling of the roots beneath the soil. Finally, Harry stopped touching the bark and looked up, a question in his eyes for Louis.

And there is a lot of things Louis could’ve said then.

_I should have known, because that is how it feels to be touched by you. Like coming alive. Breathing in. Being led through the dark into the brightest light._

But he just smiled, combed his fingers through Harry’s hair and leaned in to kiss his very own angel.

 


End file.
